Showroom

Flexform

Italian upholstery known for generously padded cushions and understated proportions.

Flexform is an Italian furniture house from Meda and its New York flagship is at 155 East 56th Street, a street level room a few doors from the A&D Building. Cassina trades from the same address, so the two can be done in one stop.

The showroom carries the representative range rather than a selection, indoor and outdoor, which is the useful part on a house whose reputation rests on a handful of pieces most designers know from photographs. Flexform's upholstery is built on down over a steel and webbing frame, and the look depends on the filling settling rather than holding a shape. That is a decision a client makes with their body and cannot make from an image.

The outdoor collection is shown properly rather than as an afterthought, and it is drawn to sit with the indoor work rather than as a separate vocabulary. On an apartment with a terrace that reads as another room, specifying both from one house is what keeps the two sides of the glass looking continuous.

The showroom is open to the public, Monday to Friday from 10 to 6 and Saturday from 12 to 5, and takes no appointment. It is one of the few floors in this district a client can be taken to at a weekend.

Sit in the sofa for longer than feels necessary. A down filled seat that reads as soft in the first minute reads as unsupported in the tenth, and the client who will live with it is the one who has to make that call rather than the designer who likes the line.